Tag Archives: sleek hair

the Hair stuff., the Makeup stuff., the Me stuff.

Let’s hear it for the Mara sisters!

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If I can say one thing, just ONE THING, about the Emmys this year, it’s this:

KATE MARA’S HAIR.

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I’ve been so ridiculously busy and preoccupied lately that I’ve barely been able to lift an eyelid even for Fashion Month (seriously, I haven’t watched the Prada OR Jil Sander show yet and Milan Fashion Week is OVER … if you know me, you know that’s unheard of), but something like that seen above will always demand a moment of my attention.  Kate Mara had her hair styled for this year’s Emmy Awards in a way that I’ve been obsessed with for about a half-year or so.  I’ve tried it myself a couple times, and it works best with hair that has not been freshly washed, but perhaps blown out straight a couple days ago and now has accumulated some natural oils at the scalp.  Add some gel that imparts shine, tuck behind the ears, and BOOM.  HIGH FASHUNZ!  Now, you can’t exactly flip your hair all over the place Herbal Essences-style, but if you just buckle down with it and go with the vibe, it’s great.  I’m always so in love with Kate Mara’s hair color, too.  I don’t really know what color it is, to be honest.  It’s not quite red, but I wouldn’t exactly call her a brunette.  Auburn?  Autumnal?  One should be so lucky to have their hair color named “autumnal”.

And now that I’ve mentioned a thing or two about big sister, I’m going to take a moment to drool over little sister, too.

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For a good year or so, I was really, really unconvinced by Rooney’s whole aesthetic.  I haven’t seen Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and I don’t really ever plan to, but I think I just couldn’t buy Rooney’s look because it seemed so heavily influenced by the film.  I would see how Rooney used to look and dress prior to Tattoo, and I couldn’t help but feel like she simply wanted to remain in character beyond the camera (though perhaps in a toned-down, more glamorous way).  The vampy lips and dark brows, the pale skin and stark expressions, and the raven-hued hair always styled with a sleek edge- is this really Rooney that we’re seeing, or are these just remnants of Lisbeth Salander?

And then I got to thinking, how often am I inspired by a character, whether it’s in a movie, a book, or a magazine (because let’s face it- we really can only understand celebrities as characters and not true people, unless we are to know them personally) when it comes to my own hair or makeup?  How often do I draw upon the look of another for my own, whether by adaptation or straight-up replication (because we’ve all copied that outfit we saw on Pinterest down to the very nail color she was wearing)?  How often have I studied what they did for their makeup, only to tweak it and adjust it until it suited my preferences, but still started with what someone else did first nonetheless?  How often have I actually had someone else in mind when deciding what eyeshadow to put on my own eyes?

I sometimes feel we obsess over the idea of “being ourselves”, and I’m not always certain that we really know  how to do this or what it even means.  My own tastes in beauty and fashion are a collective puzzle, made whole by the tastes and preferences and creations of thousands of others.  I mean, that’s what inspiration boards are, right?  You take the ideas and looks that others love and put them all together to determine what it is that you love.  It takes the manner of thousands to develop the manner of one.  My point is, I think I’ve made peace with the possibility that Rooney Mara’s current personal tastes in beauty may have indeed been heavily influenced by her film character.  She may totally be channeling a glammed-up Lisbeth Salander with that matte skin and eerie shade of plum, but so long as it looks awesome and she’s down with it, who cares if it wasn’t Rooney’s completely original idea?  And so lately I’ve felt free to fall head over heels for Rooney’s entire moda.  I love it!  I wish I could pull it off every day!  But for now, I’ll save it for an October Friday night or two.  Or three or four.  xo, MR

the Fashion stuff., the Hair stuff., the Magazine stuff., the Makeup stuff.

I’m over summer. Or, in which I discuss Fall 2013 beauty trends far too prematurely.

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January and July are the months where I get antsy.  I start getting that mid-to-late season itch for something new, as in new trends, new ideas, and new fashion.  And of course, the magazine industry doesn’t exactly help me out with this struggle.

As you may know, magazines roll out their issues about one month prior to their actual, designated months (Get it?  Because everything is early in fashion.).  So, right now it’s mid-July, which means that just about all of the August issues are out.  Okay, so no big deal right?  Well, here’s the problem with the August issues- they’re one big tease.  All they seem to be is a preview for September (the official kick-off for the fall season in fashion).  And when you have an entire month of nothing but fall previews to deal with, you begin to find yourself looking for … oh, I don’t know … fur vests in the middle of summer?

Yeah, it’s pathetic.  I’ll admit that I’ve been looking for a felt fedora hat for over a week now (not much unlike Rosie’s Rag and Bone one seen here).  I’ve even got a modest Fall 2013 shopping list going, complete with a white fisherman’s sweater.  Try hunting one of those down in July.  But regardless of how early I begin looking for signs of the coming season and how hopeless it may be until mid-August, I have to admit that it is really fun.

So what can we all look forward to as far as beauty trends for Fall 2013?  We’ve got color blocking, heeled loafers, and tons of grey to look forward to in our wardrobes, but how about our faces?  Here are just a couple things I dare you to try when the winds change:

1.  Put some serious color on your lips.  Any color, so long as it’s bold.

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Of course, I don’t tend to favor pink during the autumn seasons simply because it doesn’t feel right against all my black, grey, and muted tones (though I am kind of done with cliche rules like that), but a deep oxblood or a fire engine red like the above look shown at Marc Jacobs will certainly do the trick.  And texture doesn’t matter- glossy, matte, satin, stained, whatever.  It’s all about color saturation in this case, so there’s no real formula so long as it’s committed to its hue.

2.  Braid your hair.  ANY way you want.

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Fishtail braids, Heidi-style plaits across the crown, one long braid down the back, you name it.  If there’s a single braid of the smallest size to be found in your hair, it’s a winner this coming season.  And let it be known that I am a braid IDIOT that can hardly get her own hair into a classic three-section braid without feeling like she needs to Animorph into an octopus.  While I still can’t seem to get my hair into a satisfactory braid that makes me happy, I did find this tutorial on the fishtail style to be extremely helpful, and I’m convinced that I could probably get the job done on someone else’s hair at this point, if not on my own.  My favorite styles were the ones seen like the shot featured above from Viktor & Rolf.

3.  But if you’re not going for a braid, go for something extra sleek and extra modern.

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I tend to feel most confident in my hair when it’s down with loose body and light waves thanks to ten minutes with a curling rod … but next season, I’m planning to change that.  A couple weeks ago, just as I was getting ready to head out the door to commune with some friends, I was fussing over the very flat-against-my-head state that my hair was in.  I’d blown it out straight days prior, leaving me with no volume and quite a bit of oil on the scalp.  I then decided to go for what will be one of Fall 2013’s bigger beauty trends:  I took out my rattail comb and created a deep, severe side part, and I then brushed all of my hair back and set it with shine-imparting, light-hold gel for a sleek, almost wet look.  I then tied my hair into a low ponytail and ran a flat iron over the length of it, just for good measure.  I was left with a style that felt more face-flattering and fashion-forward than my typical soft waves.

Anything of this nature, whether employing the use of a side-part with a bun or ponytail or just slicking the hair back with relatively no part, was huge during February’s Fashion Week.  I particularly love Liu Wen’s style shown above for Jason Wu.  My most current inspiration for this look, however, has been coming from Kate Mara’s character on House of Cards, Zoe, though Kate wears this look quite well herself on the red carpet.

4.  Try going without mascara(!) and let your brows do the talking.  And let them do all the talking.

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I know, I know.  We’re AMERICANS!  We’re OBSESSED with mascara!  So fine.  Let’s get over it.  Makeup on the runways last February exhibited two kinds of extremes: a full focus on the eyes with heavy eyeliner and loud color, or a completely opposite approach that left the eyes completely bare.  And when the makeup artists left the eyelids nekkid, they seemed to compensate for it in either the lip department orrrrrrr ………. the BROW department.  The bold eyebrow is back with a vengeance these days thanks to models like Cara Delevingne, and I’ve gotta tell ya, I couldn’t be happier.  I love this bold, minimalist look seen as a whole package in the image above from the Chloe show, combining both bare lashes and fashion-forward eyebrows.

Now, I myself have never plucked, tweezed, threaded, or waxed my eyebrows until this year.  I am not kidding.  But the whole brow craze just got me so excited about grooming my own that I started dabbling in a little shaping here and there (not without anxiously contemplating for about five minutes over which exact three brow-hairs to pluck).  I started filling in little gaps with pencil a couple years ago, and my hand has just gotten heavier and heavier as models like Cara have grown more and more popular.

And then, about two weeks ago, this happened.  Camilla Belle came out of hiding with two spectacularly perfect caterpillars on her face, and I FELL IN LOVE.  Say no more!  I’m hooked on the bold brow, and I’m ready to let the Liz Taylor in me shine!  No no, not that Liz Taylor.  THAT Liz Taylor.  There we go.  That’s more like it.  NO!  I said NOT THAT LIZ TAYLOR!  Or THAT one!  OR THAT ONE!

THAT ONE!  Thank you!  Gosh!  xo, MR